GermaniaGermania (/dʒərˈmeɪniə/; Latin: [ɡɛrˈmaː.ni.a]) was the
Roman term for the geographical region in north-central Europe
inhabited mainly by Germanic peoples.
It extended from the
DanubeDanube in the south to the Baltic Sea, and from
the
RhineRhine in the west to the Vistula. The Roman portions formed two
provinces of the Empire,
Germania InferiorGermania Inferior to the north (present-day
Netherlands, Belgium, and western Germany), and
Germania SuperiorGermania Superior to
the south (Switzerland, southwestern Germany, and eastern France).
GermaniaGermania was inhabited mostly by Germanic tribes, but also Celts,
Balts,
ScythiansScythians and later on Early Slavs. The population mix changed
over time by assimilation, and especially by migration. The ancient
Greeks were the first to mention the tribes in the area. Later, Julius
Caesar wrote about warlike Germanic tribesmen and their threat to
Roman Gaul, and there were military clashes between the Romans and the
indigenous tribes.
TacitusTacitus wrote the most complete account of Germania
that still survives.
The origin of the term
GermaniaGermania is uncertain, but was known by
Caesar's time, and may be Gaulish in origin.[1]

Contents

1 Terminology

1.1 Etymology
1.2 Modern usage

2 Geography

2.1 Ancient sources

3 History

3.1 Population
3.2 Roman conquests

4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Terminology[edit]
Etymology[edit]

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The name came into use after
Julius CaesarJulius Caesar and whether it was used
widely before him amongst Romans is unknown. The term may be Gallic in
origin. Caesar reports hearing from his
RemiRemi allies that the term
Germani was used for the group the Romans called the Germani
Cisrhenani, and that these tribes had historically come from over the
Rhine, so the name
GermaniaGermania seems to have been extended to cover the
similar tribes in the area understood to be their homeland.[2][3] Some
generations later,
TacitusTacitus claimed that this is precisely what
happened, saying that the
TungriTungri of his time, who lived in the area
which had been home to the Germani Cisrhenani, had changed their name,
but had once been the original Germani.
TacitusTacitus wrote in AD 98:

For the rest, they affirm
GermaniaGermania to be a recent word, lately
bestowed. For those who first passed the
RhineRhine and expulsed the Gauls,
and are now named Tungrians, were then called Germani. And thus by
degrees the name of a tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that
by an appellation at first occasioned by fear and conquest, they
afterwards chose to be distinguished, and assuming a name lately
invented were universally called Germani.[4][full citation needed]

Modern usage[edit]
Names of
GermanyGermany in English and some other languages are derived from
"Germania", but German speakers call it "Deutschland", and Dutch
speakers call it "Duitsland", both from *þeudō "people or nation"
(see
Theodiscus and Teutons). Several modern languages use the name
"Germania", including Hebrew (גרמניה), Italian (Germania),
Albanian (Gjermania), Bulgarian (Германия), Maltese
(Ġermanja), Greek (Γερμανία), Macedonian
(Германија), Romanian (Germania), Russian (Германия),
Armenian (Գերմանիա) and Georgian (გერმანია).
Geography[edit]
GermaniaGermania extended from the
RhineRhine eastward to the
VistulaVistula river, and
from the
DanubeDanube river northward to the Baltic Sea.[5] The areas west
of the
RhineRhine were mainly Celtic (specifically Gaulish) and became part
of the Roman Empire[6][7] in the first century BC.
The Roman parts of Germania, "Lesser Germania", eventually formed two
provinces of the empire,
GermaniaGermania Inferior, "Lower Germania" (which
came to eventually include the region of the original germani
cisrhenani) and
Germania SuperiorGermania Superior (in modern terms comprising an area
of western Switzerland, the French Jura and
AlsaceAlsace regions, and
southwestern Germany). Important cities in Lesser
GermaniaGermania included
BesançonBesançon (Besontio),
StrasbourgStrasbourg (Argentoratum),
WiesbadenWiesbaden (Aquae
Mattiacae), and
MainzMainz (Mogontiacum).

GermaniaGermania in the Roman 2nd century view of the world; after Ptolemy in
a map of the 15th century

Ancient sources[edit]
The geography of Magna
GermaniaGermania was comprehensively described in
Ptolemy's Geography of around 150 AD via geographical coordinates of
the main cities. By means of a geodetic deformation analysis carried
out by the Institute of
GeodesyGeodesy and Geoinformation Science at the
Technical University of BerlinTechnical University of Berlin as part of a project of the German
Research Association under the direction of Dieter Lelgemann in
2007–2010, many historical place names have been localized and
associated with place names of the present day.[8]
History[edit]

The expansion of the Germanic tribes 750 BC – AD 1 (after
the Penguin Atlas of World History 1988):
Settlements before 750 BC
New settlements by 500 BC
New settlements by 250 BC
New settlements by AD 1

GermaniaGermania was inhabited by different tribes, most of them Germanic but
also some Celtic, proto-Slavic, Baltic and
ScythianScythian peoples. The
tribal and ethnic makeup changed over the centuries as a result of
assimilation and, most importantly, migrations. The Germanic people
spoke several different dialects.
Classical records show little about the people who inhabited the north
of Europe before the 2nd century BC. In the 5th century BC, the Greeks
were aware of a group they called
CeltsCelts (Keltoi).
HerodotusHerodotus also
mentioned the
ScythiansScythians but no other tribes. At around 320 BC, Pytheas
of Massalia sailed around Britain and along the northern coast of
Europe, and what he found on his journeys was so strange that later
writers refused to believe him. He may have been the first
MediterraneanMediterranean to distinguish the Germanic people from the Celts.
Contact between German tribes and the
Roman EmpireRoman Empire did take place and
was not always hostile. Recent excavations of the Waldgirmes Forum
show signs that a civilian Roman town was established there, which has
been interpreted to mean that Romans and Germanic tribesmen were
living in peace, at least for a while.[9]
Caesar described the cultural differences between the Germanic
tribesmen, the Romans, and the
GaulsGauls in his book Commentarii de Bello
Gallico, where he recalls his defeat of the
SuebiSuebi tribes at the Battle
of Vosges. He describes them at length at the beginning of Book IV and
the middle of Book VI. He states that the Gauls, although warlike, had
a functional society and could be civilized, but that the Germanic
tribesmen were far more savage and were a threat to
Roman GaulRoman Gaul and
Rome itself. Caesar said the Germanic tribes were nomadic, with no
notable settlements and a primitive culture. He used this as one of
his justifications for why they had to be conquered. His accounts of
barbaric northern tribes could be described as an expression of the
superiority of Rome, including Roman Gaul.[10]
Caesar's accounts portray the Roman fear of the Germanic tribes and
the threat they posed. The perceived menace of the Germanic tribesmen
proved accurate. The most complete account of
GermaniaGermania that has been
preserved from Roman times is Tacitus' Germania.
Population[edit]

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Some Germani, perhaps the original people to have been referred to by
this name, had lived on the west side of the Rhine. At least as early
as the 2nd century BC this area was considered[by whom?] to be in
"Gaul", and became part of the Roman empire in the course of the
Gallic WarsGallic Wars (58–50 BC). These so-called
Germani cisrhenaniGermani cisrhenani lived in
the region of present-day eastern Belgium, the southeastern
Netherlands, and stretching into
GermanyGermany towards the Rhine. During the
period of the Roman empire, more tribes settled in areas of the empire
near the Rhine, in territories controlled by the Roman Empire.
Eventually these areas came to be known as Lesser Germania, while
Greater
GermaniaGermania (Magna Germania; it is also referred to by names
referring to its being outside Roman control:
GermaniaGermania libera, "free
Germania") formed the larger territory east of the Rhine.
The
GermaniaGermania of Caesar and
TacitusTacitus was not defined along linguistic
lines as is the case with the modern term "Germanic". The Romans knew
of Celtic tribes living in Magna
GermaniaGermania (Greater Germania), and what
we now term Germanic tribes living in Gaul, then a predominantly
Celtic region. It is also not clear that they distinguished the tribes
into linguistic categories in any exact way. The language of the
Germani CisrhenaniGermani Cisrhenani and their neighbours across the
RhineRhine is still
unclear. Their tribal names and personal names are generally
considered Celtic, and there are also signs of an older Belgic
language which once existed between the contact zone of the Germanic
and Celtic languages.
GermaniaGermania in its eastern parts was likely also inhabited by early
Baltic and, centuries later, Slavic tribes. These parts of eastern
GermaniaGermania are sometimes called
Germania SlavicaGermania Slavica in modern
historiography.
Roman conquests[edit]